Launch site and facilities

The requirement of the Launch site is to be on, or within about 50Km of the equator. Elsewhere, more fuel would be needed. A safe (usually open ocean) ascent range is also needed for safety reasons. Our AscentCraft do not follow the “normal” climb to the East, as their large diameter and poor streamlining limits their speed of ascent through the atmosphere, and they climb at subsonic speed for at least 15Km, before even low supersonic speed. This means a more or less vertical flight on a lot less than full power. Full power isn't applied before 50Km – at least 5 minutes of flight. This uses a lot more fuel than a conventional launch, But as in-flight refuelling is used, this is not a problem, except for the bigger fuel bill, and the need to run the engines for longer.

and facilities